Masks of Nyarlathotep 5

Friday Evening, 16th January, 1925

We try to gather our thoughts on what has happened and what we need to be doing next. We have the funeral of our friend Jackson Elias tomorrow, and we have been invited to his will reading on Monday.

Lefty seems to have come down with something during the course of the day, and retires early, leaving the rest of us to try and figure out what it is we want to do.

I have a task of tracking down the book that Elias was trying to obtain from Miriam Atwright at Harvard University.

We need to talk to Prof Antony Cowles. About what though? He gave some talks on Polynesian death cults a flyer for which Jackson Elias had on his body. Whether it’s related to Elias’ death, or just a coincidence we don’t know.

We need to talk to Erica Carlyle, sister of the expedition leader. Maybe she can tell us what the real purpose of the expedition was. What were they really trying to find, and why did they go to Kenya?

One of the expedition members may be alive, a theory put forward by Jackson, who sent a letter to Jonah Kensington, from the Hampton House Hotel in Nairobi. How we follow that up we’re not sure.

Captain Walter Robson, claimed by the police officer Lt Martin Poole (who interviewed us) to be not capable of solving the serial killings of the death cult. Is he corrupt? Why did he blame Hilton Adams for the murders? We should also try and talk to Hilton Adams, who is currently on death row.

Dr Mordicai Lemming identified the mark on the murder victims as being cult related. Maybe he knows something useful.

The MS Antenor was the ship that Jackson sent the original telegram from. Is it still in New York? Did Jackson leave anything on the ship, or did anything happen on it? Apparently not – asking Alfred, we find out that it is heading to Argentina. So that’s a dead end.

Monty goes to check in at the police precinct, but Captain Robson isn’t currently on duty. Monty also tries to organise an interview with Hilton Adams. By the time he returns, we are all ready for bed.

Saturday 17th

We receive a telegram from Bradly Grey, the lawyer of Miss Carlyle. She is willing to see us on the afternoon on Tuesday or Wednesday morning. This would be at the family estate in Westchester, just outside of New York. We agree to meet on Tuesday.

Chasing up Professor Cowles, he has gone back to Arkham. He had his daughter with him apparently. She was noted as being particularly pretty by Alfred’s contact at the local University.

I send a telegram to Miriam Atwright asking for details about the book that Jackson was after. I also send one to Cowles, asking for a good time to be able to consult with him about cults.

The funeral of Jackson Elias takes place at a small church. Jonah Kensington (publisher), Carlton Ramsey (lawyer) and a Willa Sligh sign the book of condolences. There are also a number of members of the press attending. It is a short service, partly due to the small attendance, partly because it is chucking it down with snow.

Willa Sligh turns out to be Ramsey’s niece, and also acts as his legal secretary.

After the funeral, one of the press, Rebecca Shosenburg comes over to talk to Clayton. She is a reporter for the New York Times and wrote the article on Jackson’s death. She wants to know whether he thinks Hilton Adams is innocent. If Jackson was killed by the same person that was really responsible for the previous murders, then it couldn’t have been Adams who is currently locked up.

She invites us to drop in on the New York times if we are interested in taking a look at her investigation files on the case.

Jonah invites us to lunch at 2pm tomorrow at his house. He tells us that he has found some items of interest from his correspondence with Jackson that he is willing to show us.

Through the help of Alfred, we find that Dr Lemming resides at the Murry Hill Hotel. We initially discuss splitting up, but decide instead to all head first to the New York Times offices to speak with Miss Shosenburg. On arriving there, we are directed up to the newspaper’s crime section. Her desk is neat and tidy, unlike those of the other reporters. She seems pleased that we’ve come, and starts going through a series of clippings that she has collected. She seems to have taken on the killings as a personal crusade, and is confident that Hilton Adams isn’t the one responsible for them.

The first report is of a murder in Harlem with strange symbols carved in the forehead of the victim. It’s pretty much the same symbol on all the victims. The only ties between the victims seem to be that they frequented Harlem, though not all the bodies were found there. All the bodies were found in different precincts, so initially there was little organisation between the investigations.

Eventually the case was transferred to Captain Robson in the 14th precinct. She thinks that Robson was either too thick or too lazy to work out what was going on. Then Adams was found standing over the eighth corpse, so he was charged with the murder. An all white jury found the black Adams to be guilty, so now he is awaiting execution.

Adams was part of the Harlem Hell Fighters, the original black regiment that was raised in Harlem to come and fight in the War. She thinks that Robson is at best incompetent. He was probably under a lot of pressure to find someone, anyone, responsible. She suggests we talk to his wife, though I’m not certain what we would find out from her.

Whatever happened, Robson seems to have become convinced that Adams did it, and hasn’t been helpful in providing access to evidence and information for the press. Miss Shosenburg’s attempts to gather more information and evidence have become limited.

Later in the afternoon, we head to the Murry Hill Hotel to find Dr Lemming. We ask at the desk, and are told that Dr Lemming is in, and willing to see us. We head up the stairs to the sixth floor. Staring down at us with some enthusiasm is Dr Lemming as we ascend the final stairs. He seems suspiciously pleased to see us in fact, and invites us into his somewhat opulent apartment.

There are hand marbled walls, piles of books, art objects and other nick knacks all over the place. He seems very excitable. Either he’s not used to getting visitors, or he’s on drugs.

Monty shows him a picture of the symbol, and he seems excited but says he hasn’t seen it before. He seems to get even more excited, and takes a drink of his ‘tonic’ to try and calm his nerves. Clayton pushes some of his own ‘tonic’ on Dr Lemming. I’m not sure what’s in it, but according to Clayton it cures all known ailments. Probably some unknown ones as well. I get the impression that Clayton has a huge stockpile of this which he is trying to sell.

After calming down a bit, Dr Lemming clarifies that he has seen the symbol, but not a picture of one on a body. He says that it is a symbol from a medieval death cult. He leads us into his library, which is actually pretty darn impressive. He has a floor to ceiling shelf of books on African lore alone.

He pulls out a diary of Allan Quartermaine, which contains some pictograms of the marking. He believes it is tied into a tongue cult. The “red”/”bloody” tongue it is called in Kenya. He was helped by Silas N’Kwane (of the Ju Ju house) to understand the book, and informs us that this particular form of the symbol comes from Kenya.

He didn’t know Roger Carlyle, but he knew Dr Robert Huston who was also on the expedition. After Dr Huston died, there was a bit of a kerfuffle over what to do with his medical records, since he had provided medical advice to a lot of people whilst acting as a psychologist to the rich and wealthy.

Monty asks where Dr Lemming got the diary from. Apparently Allan Quartermaine wanted some information that Dr Lemming had, so they did an exchange. The symbols seem to have come from cults in the region of Kenya.

We agree to stay for dinner, and I use the time to browse through his library. He has some very good books, some of which I’ve heard of but have never seen an actual copy of.

We get back to our hotel quite late, and find a telegram from Miss Atwright. The book that Elias was after was “Africa Dark Sects”. It had been stolen from the Widener Library. Quite mysteriously as it happens. It simply vanished, and there was an unspeakable odor in the library afterwards. I send a telegram back to thank her, and also a telegram to the British Library to see if they have a copy.

Sunday 18th

We receive a telegram from Dr Lemming, and after some rambling he mentions that the origin of the mark comes from a cult that came from dynastic Egypt. The Egyptians called them the Bloody Tongue, back around 2600 BC, which equates to the building of the pyramids.

We are due to visit Jonah Kensington for lunch and a discussion. We turn up around 1pm, chat and then have lunch. After lunch, he passes us notes by an editor for Prospero House concerning a book idea that Elias had. It concerned what really happened with the Carlyle Expedition. There did seem to be a cover up about the murders, and there were other strange things.

JE went to investigate the scene of the event, where the land was said to be cursed by the locals. Even the British soldiers who found the corpses said that they looked like they hadn’t decayed enough. The locals talk of foreign magics, which the Bloody Tongue represents, which their own magic cannot protect against. There is a nearby Mountain of the Black Wind, which is where the outsider cult is based

There is also mention that the expedition did some things in Cairo which were important, before heading to Kenya. In fact, these things may have been the reason for their trip to Kenya. There were suggestions that this needed following up.

JE also spoke to a “Nails” Nelson who claimed to have seen Jack Brady in Hong Kong in 1922. At least some, if not all, the main members of the expedition are still alive is what JE thought.

He also provides some handwritten notes by JE, which seem to show that JE was maybe losing it. He was scared and paranoid about the cult, and that they were after him. He seemed to think that the psychiatric notes of Dr Huston could include some important details about the members of the Expedition. He also thinks that there are some important things in his safe.

Getting back to our hotel, we have a telegram back from Ewa Seaward Cowles, saying that he father would be happy to speak to us. He has an Edisongraph of his lecture as well. She suggests that we take a train to Boston and Maine train station at Arkham. He suggestion is to meet at Grafton Diner, and asks which dates would suit us. We send back a suggestion of Thursday afternoon.

Monday 19th

The reading of JE’s will is scheduled for the afternoon at his office in Harlem. We turn up, and the lawyer offers us a drink. I’d almost forgotten that such things are now illegal in the USA. Elias updated his will the day before his death, and Carlton Ramsey thinks that Elias was expecting to die.

Jackson left some instructions, and also a mechanical recording to be played. Eventually the secretary, Willa, figures out how to operate the player, since none of us are able to.

The recording basically asks us to look into his death and follow up on what has happened. His will requests that a fund is set up from the proceeds of his estate to him pay for the investigation. This means us, basically. They’ll want receipts in order for us to expense everything, but we should be well funded for whatever it is we need to do.